A girl’s view of sustainability and social media

Moral Obligations of the Artist in a Global Warming World

In one of my former lives, I used to be an artist . . . My friends from CADRE New Media Lab asked me to contribute to {Greenify}, Switch magazine’s latest issue devoted to the intersections of green, new media art, and technology. I felt compelled to write about, “Moral Obligations of the Artist in a Global Warming World“. Here is the whole article:

Several months ago, I wrote ‘Who is Boss?‘, an emotional blog post about Richard Serra‘s work:

Today’s 3 Quarks Daily article about the sculptor Richard Serra, made me think about my not so long ago days as an artist. During my stint at San Jose State University, I spent many days at the foundry, casting bronze sculptures. One only needs to witness a metal pour once to realize how energy intensive the whole process is. One of the reasons I quit the art world, was my increasing unease with the idea of making the planet worse as a result of my artistic activities. I look at Serra‘s monumental steel structures, and instead of wonder, I feel outrage, and sadness. All I can see is one’s man inflated ego displayed on a monumental scale, a metaphor for how many amongst us, aim to show nature, who is boss.

Historically, object-making has been an integral part of the art practice. It still is, for many artists, and raises ethical questions from an environmental perspective. Which materials to use? Should art-producing activities be carbon-neutral? Why should the artist care if the majority of his fellow citizens don’t? How far is the artist to go in his or her environmentalism?

One extreme position challenges the legitimacy of the artist in a world where global needs are being re-evaluated. Last year, a prominent gallery owner pursued me to become the director of his gallery. Here is the argument I made to him, when I declined his very lucrative offer. Given the state of the world, I told him, I wanted to devote my time to activities that were going to make a difference. Business, technology, and policy are what’s going to save us. His point was, art is essential to democracy, and a society without art no longer has a soul. He is right, of course. And wrong also. Global warming has thrown us back down a few steps along Maslow’s hierarchy. Collectively, we are no longer at the apex of the pyramid, where the actualization of our needs for aesthetics and creativity becomes an end in itself. Instead we are to deal with more primitive needs, way at the bottom. The satisfaction of our needs for food, water, air, and safety, is being threatened once more, on a global scale. The very real anxiety I feel, as a result, has caused me to re-evaluate my actions, and to ask the question of, how can I contribute to the solution.

The artist as environmental activist has much to think about these days. It is not just a matter of minimizing one’s footprint, but also of how to best use one’s creative talents to serve the environmental cause. Does the artist have a role in a world in crisis, and if so, what is it? I am reminded of Neil Young‘s recent statement at the Berlin Film Festival, “I know that the time when music could change the world is past, I really doubt that a single song can make a difference. It is a reality.”

A year spent blogging about environmental issues, and engaging in cyber conversations with influencers from a wide range of disciplines, not just artists, has left me convinced of the special role to be played by three types of artists:

First, is the digital media artist, who can use his or her creativity and knowledge of digital technologies, to advance the climate fight. A big obstacle to the resolution of the climate crisis, has been the relative apathy of the crowds and the unwillingness of the majority to make behavioral changes or to endorse policies that require personal sacrifices. Internet social media tools such as YouTube, blogs, and wikis offer unprecedented opportunities for artists to get their messages out to millions of people. Sometimes the boundaries between business and art can be blurry, as evidenced by Do The Green Thing, a British Internet venture that combines performance, digital media, and advertising techniques to provoke its audience into making gradual life changes. Sounds a lot like art to me, although it never makes any such claim.

Second is the performance artist, whose interventions can disrupt the status quo, and cause others to pause and reflect, leading then to become more aware. One such example is the practice of shopdropping, originated by Ryan Watkins-Hughes. ‘Shopdrop: To covertly place merchandise on display in a store. A form of ‘culture jamming’ s. reverse shoplift, droplift.’ There is also ‘Improv Everywhere‘, an art initiative from Charlie Todd, that aims to cause ‘scenes of chaos and joy in public places‘. All these performances benefit from viral spreading on YouTube. During the ten days since it was first downloaded, ‘The Day London Froze‘ video was viewed 559,000 times, favorited 3,715 times, and commented on 2,588 times.

Third is the public artist, whose works can interrupt the public landscape and alter people daily’s sensory experiences. Research indicates over and over, that awareness of global warming is no longer the primary issue. What is needed instead, is a context to trigger behavioral changes. TheVelib’ initiative in Paris and other European cities for instance, has changed the urban landscape, and gotten citizens interested in biking as an alternative mode of transportation. To that end, the public artist can collaborate with other environmental actors, urban planners, architects, designers, city engineers, transportation authorities, sustainability teams, utility companies, and others, to create compelling experiences for citizens. Rather than creating his or her own project, a la Christo for instance, a more effective approach may be for the artist to latch on to already planned projects, and to propose artistic enhancements.

In all three cases, the artist serves as messenger extraordinaire, in service of the planet.

For the artist wondering still, about his or her role in a global warming word, I would like to suggest the following code of ethics: To the best of my artistic abilities, I will question, provoke, engage, communicate, conserve in ways that cause my fellow citizens to take steps towards a more sustainable lifestyle.

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12 Responses

Gosh, I have to tell you I’m sorry to see someone feeling this way. Carbon neutral? The global warming idea has gotten exaggerated to say the least. We are carbon dependent (we’re made out of it).
I share you’re misgivings about Serra but for very different reasons. I just think his stuff is junk. Indeed, I know it is. He is a “name,” and a little study of art history reveals how the “names” fade with time. His big metal stuff will not last (and may be recycled before you know it!). But why should that stop anyone from making real art?
Real art has touched so many lives over centuries. Real art reveals our humanity to us. Real art connects us to the past, to history. It’s like a time machine. The real art being made today (as opposed to what’s “famous,” i.e. expensive today) will reveal this era to future generations. And I think that’s marvelous.
Real art exists today, but you have to work harder to find it because it’s quietly made — like Van Gogh painting in Provence in the 19th century. Van Gogh was unknown during the time he worked.
The real artists of our time are people you’ve never even heard of. It’s only through the real art of past times and places that we know some of what we know about nature.
If you want people to have more respectful sentiments toward nature, advocate for the kind of art that celebrates natural world. (That eliminates Damien Hirst, I guess.)

Although I’m not sure if mentioning this is a good idea (because I’ll have to “compete” with more people for tickets), one of the wonderfully great artists-with-a-message of our times will be performing in San Francisco late in the year. Hers has been a wonderful voice-of-caring for several decades now. I hope she speaks out for the environment. Who? Joan Baez.

As an emerging artist, I aspire to the code of ethics as mentioned above…but as a dancer/musician who is inspired most by collaborations with digital media, it will be a challenge to stay completely green! I am interested in developing work that helps people to truly appreciate the world they live in and maybe take a longer look at nature and all its wonders. But does using technology to do this make me a hypocrit? I’m also going to be using the net and digital means to try and reach a wide audience…if I could do this without relying on electric powered devices I would, but that would be impossible at the moment…and perhaps until the whole world realises that a switch needs to be made to sustainable living, artists need to resolve to be hypocrits to get their message out there. It’s an interesting position to be in as an artist…but I personally can’t stop creating in the way I do, and I just hope that what I create helps in some small way to endorse the natural world!

… or nuclear, a literally carbon-free energy source as it emits fifty time less carbon dioxide than coal-fired plants. (yes, my translation of my article in French will come with all the data you need, and even more :P )

On artists and climate change, Radiohead did some pretty interesting stuff as they ask their fans to come to their concerts by carpooling or other clean ways.

It’s a huge drive (no pun intended) for fans to test this way of traveling…

Thanks Edouard, for the Radiohead mention. That’s a great example. My post was biased towards the visual arts as it is my background . . . Joan Baez is also a wonderful example of activist artist. Thanks Jeff, for bringing up her name.

what an exciting post you have burst forth.
i feel as if my spine had been chiro-practically manipulated
artists are on the forefront of social responsibility indeed.
i stand, straightened and proud, thank you..

Perhaps someone should do a great TV special, or series, or web piece (not Hollywoodized, thank you), consisting mainly of visual images and visual art accompanied by music, all in support of the environment, our human responsibility to take care of the environment, our human interdependence with the environment, and related matters. The visuals could be a mixture of film clips and visual art (and, of course, good film clips are visual art), and the music could be selected pieces from Joni Mitchell, Joan Baez, Radiohead, Pete Seeger, Bob Dylan, U2, and so forth. Mixing visuals and music, of course, is very powerful. Why not do it (for once) without the talking heads, news reporters providing (often) dumb comments, and so forth? Just visuals and music, woven together?

Also, I’d suggest watching the DVD “The U.S. vs. John Lennon”, primarily to experience the various things that John Lennon and Yoko Ono (a visual performance artist herself) did to speak out and convey messages in earlier times. The video is quite good and would be great background for anyone with a message who might be a “peaceful-artistic-activist-in-training.”

A good point — ! — which can go further. Carbon emissions come from economies, and 70% of the US GDP (and a similar amount in Europe) is contained within the consumer economy. Consumer habits are set by trends among young people, who in turn are influenced by imagemakers. Perhaps the fastest turning point for society is among the imagemakers. One project I’m working on,

provides minigrants to art students for work in the public interest. And one of the goals is to engage as many creative people in the 18 – 24 range that we can, to help turn future commercial imagemaking around at the grassroots level.

Corporations work for consumers. Change consumers, via changing the aspirational images around them, and the world will follow. This is really where the battle is won or lost (along with coal generation, deforestation, and cattle ranching — all consumer driven as well) and even a small change would have a big effect.

Richard, glad to have your input, once more. I agree, artists as image makers – both literally, and figuratively – can be a powerful agents of change. Particularly new media, performance, public, and performing artists, as they are the most likely to reach the masses.

A lot of good ideas here – if a little patronising. The only obligation one has in this life is to be true to oneself. Not easy!I think one has to put oneself right before telling others what we think they ought to be doing.

I think we may be forgetting something in this conversation – what some of us would call the spiritual dimension. The whole of life is interconnected – there is only one self/ god/ nature – whatever one likes to call it. If we can find, and consistently speak from this place in ourselves – then everything around us changes. Then our activism, if that is what we are drawn to do, will be recognised as authentic, and have real impact.

Personally I do not like being ‘done good to’, ‘preached at’, or given advice I have not asked for – and I have never met anybody, anybody at all, who would be pleased to be labelled as ‘the masses’.